In this episode of the Social Media Marketing Happy Hour, Dawn and Traci answer the question which was asked by one of Traci’s Periscope followers. The question: Is it possible to build meaningful relationships online?
The answer is YES! In fact, Dawn and Traci have literally built their entire relationship online – through Skype, telephone and text – and it has taken them into a very meaningful and wonderful business partnership.
So what does it take to form meaningful relationships online?
In order for your business to be profitable and thrive, you have to connect with people. And it is important to be consistent with your social media persona. Don’t be someone online who, as soon as people finish buying something from you, don’t take measures to build up relationships with them. If all you’re after is their money and you don’t even make them feel that you care, chances are you won’t get a sale from them again. That kind of attitude is not going to last in the long haul. Business is all about relationships. However, today we've created this culture where we only build relationships because we want something from someone, but real relationship building pays off even years later in ways you never would've expected. Relationship is key in every area.
Marketing is all sorts of things and social is just one aspect of it, but if you really understand the social piece of online marketing. you can build relationships even if you are an introvert, extrovert, shy, or outgoing. Regardless, you can create meaningful relationships through engagement online. For example, when we notice people in message threads who leave amazing content that is very helpful and useful, and you can't help but thank them for it; just by showing your appreciation for someone else’s insights you make that connection and that could be an open door to build a relationship.
In old school people used to participate in forums where you can be a valuable resource in your community. At present, there are a bunch of social media platforms that are amazing for that and Facebook is just one of them, but if you really want to step it up, creating video content is a great way to become more personal. It allows the viewers to engage with you especially during live broadcasts. With video you have the opportunity to let people get to know who you are and that's where social media is so brilliant.
When you’ve garnered a regular audience who comment and interact with you, you start to get to know these people little by little. Next, you can take it even further in a Skype call. Some people are afraid of taking their followers from replying to a tweet to a video to a Skype call, but that should really be the focus – nurturing online relationships and taking them all the way to a one-on-one conversation.
One of the downfalls of social media is that people choose to do online marketing because they want to hide behind the computer. But the truth is, you can’t go into marketing your business with the idea that you're somehow going to remove yourself and relationships from the equation. Maybe you can do that with e-commerce type transactions like selling on Amazon, but in network marketing, you still need to take that online relationship and take it offline.
Need extra help building relationships? We have this amazing Happy Hour Marketing #GameChangers Group on Facebook filled with wicked awesome people who are also building their businesses, moving forward and encouraging one another. You can join by going to www.HappyHourHangouts.com/fbgroup.
